Of Blue Skin & Moon Elves...

Anyone who truly knows me knows that when I'm not my steampunk kitty self, I shapeshift. Phin has said that he never knows which Elle he is coming inworld to. I love different skins and avatars and thanks to fellow Plurker Peter Stindberg, I am finally blue. I have always wanted a really pretty blue skin like this and I am tremendously happy with it. Even has freckles! Yay! Thank you Peter!Lunar is wonderful to me and I thought I'd repay that kindness by making a surprise for him. He had been talking about wanting elven armor. I've never made any before, but armed with RL references of Chinese, Russian, Japanese armor and medieval platemail, I decided to make a go at it. He, like I, was pretty amazed at how it turned out. It is named "Lunar Yugao" after Yoshitoshi's "100 Aspects of the Moon" woodblock engraving inspired by the Tale of Genji. A part of the engraving is embossed on the metal. I think it is one of the most beautiful things I have made in SL so far...

The Builds at Abyss...

I was recently at Abyss looking at their great skins, but it was the build that made me gasp. Everything is softly lit and it is easily one of the prettiest places I've been to in SL. I am going to have to explore the sim itself more another time...

Tiny Olympic Week 3: Green Team GO!

We've hit Week 3 of the Raglan Shire Tiny Olympics and the Red and Puckle teams are putting the pressure on us! Here I am getting ready for a pie toss... I got bumped for the bronze at the last minute, but Morti took the silver for Team Green (gold went to Etheria and Bronze went to Chow). look at all the yummy pies! Nom nom nom...
I thought I'd take a practice run for the mounted puppy races...
It was puppy pandemonium at the starting gate!
And later, snakes in a rickshaw as Reign sat passenger for a moment before I did the Rickshaw Pull Relay Race w/Angel!

Elle's Guide to SL Sims...of the Fuuuuture!

I recently had a discussion about the futuristic sims of SL and here are some of my faves...

Suffugium
This cyberpunk sim is laid-back and filled with interesting, talented regulars. A fantastic build unto itself, explore its buildings, get lost in the sewers or chill at the basketball court and listen to music. Look out for those probes!Extropia Core
Most futuristic sims I came across were dystopic or post-apoc in feel. Extropia was like a retro breath of fresh air in that space age optimism kind of way. Home to Sophrosyne's Salon--where the audience is as interesting as the topics discussed there on Saturdays--Extropia is a bright shiny Tomorrowland vision of the future and well worth a visit...
The Wastelands
This collection of post-Apocalyptic sims is renowned for not only the ingenuity of its citizens and builds, but their true individualism and talent. Not to mention, where else can scavenging turn into survival of the fittest?
Future City
Like a Blade Runner vision, Future City's multilayered, sky-grazing, incredible builds will have you coming back to see it again and again...Please open officially soon! PLEASE.
Insilico
The future is now and evolving at this new high-in-the-sky cyberpunk build. Keep an eye on it as its community grows...
Midian City
Gritty dark urban RP and one of the best builds on the grid to me...
City of Lost Angel's
One of the now biggest (with new sims recently added), oldest and "baddest" of the dark urban future RP sims where demons, angels, lycans, vampires, humans and everyone else roam and use the CCS combat system. When the RP's good, the RP is good there. And if you're squeamish or think you should have lots of limits or if you don't think something bad could happen to you here, why the hell are you there?
Toxian City
Like CoLA, a dark urban future sim, but personally I found the RP a bit easier to get into as a newcomer. Wear an observer tag or go ahead and put on the DCS combat system and jump right in. Maybe you'll even get to join the rest of the citizens in trying to take down one of Toxia's infamous toxic waste monsters...
Space Colony Necronom VI
This futuristic sim is set on a space station filled with slaves, cyborgs, crew members, aliens, traders and pirates. Very much a mature sim and RP experience, but it also has a very interesting HUD called NeMit, which allows you to accomplish missions without necessarily being a part of the overall RP.

Feeling Retro in Emvee Cuba

I thought I'd put on one of my little 1950s bombshell dresses and visit the Emvee Cuba sim today! It was so beautiful that I thought I'd excerpt a lovely poem--"Mariposa" by Cuba's late national poet Nicolas Guillen...

...Quisiera
hacer un verso que tuviera
toda la fragancia de la Primavera
y que cual una mariposa rara
revolara
sobre tu vida...sobre tu cuerpo...
sobre tu cara...

Particle Fiascos and Exploring the ISS Yamato

Inventory should come with warning signs...Was I suppose to WEAR this thing? All i know is that I rezzed it on my skyplat and this happened...I got a tp from GoSpeed Racer (thankfully after I got all of the expletives out of my system from having to derez my platform) to come and see the ISS Yamato in the Yamato sim...
GoSpeed served in the Navy in RL and we were both tickled to see this fantastic carrier...
You can also take a tour around the build and the plane ride itself is a LOT of fun! You can even choose between a plane for humans OR tinies!
Of course, we dragged Zoe over and checked out the shipyard on the other end...

Steampunk Kitties & Questionable Bears

I am almost never seen without my brass ears and tail. I can't remember the last time that I didn't sport them, so it was a treat to meet fellow Plurker and steampunk neko Michael Cela, who is a DJ. I love his steel version of them...Oooo...While cleaning inventory, I finally got a chance to rez CoCo and Kaylee Linden's Linden Bears. For those of you who don't know, all Lindens have these collectible little bears that they will give to you if asked and some are created for special occasions too, such as the SL5B one I have in my inventory o' doom somewhere. Um...one of these bears is not like the other...

Inventory Control & How I Ended Up in the Future

My day started out normal enough...trying to rein in my inventory at the lake house at Vista del Mar...
But I got distracted and threw on a cybersuit and decided to visit Eshi's Flower Tower #2...
I love these cybernetic eyes...
I ended up in the new futuristic Insilico sim, where I found some interesting items while shopping there...I love interesting builds and as it is over 3000m up, as a builder I found even the foundations to be fascinating...
I have heard that an RP is beginning to develop there. As with all new sims, it will be interesting to see how it evolves...

SL Relay for Life 2008: After

I kept a journal throughout my mother's illness (and still add to it sometimes). I will excerpt from it here with pics of the quiet builds and RFL grounds that I rode through with Lunar when it was all over...

"At 11:30 am today, my mother told me she has Stage III breast cancer and it is aggressive. How ironic since it is Breast Cancer Awareness Month...She's so weirdly upbeat, but that's a good thing, isn't it? When I got off the phone with her, I jumped up and ran out of my office. I had to get outside. I just couldn't think. Everything was a swirl...""She told me that her hair is falling out when she combs her hair now. She says she has lost quite a bit of it in the back...'This bothers me more than the cancer,' she said, and told me that she asked my brother's friend to come over and shave it all off. 'I tried to hold off on doing it so I could have my hair as long as I could, but I think it'll be easier, you know?'""R. told me that he might have non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, stage III, possibly IV...I didn't know what to say except to try and offer comfort, but at one point his pain was so palpable that I thought I'd start crying again. Like my mom, I love and care about him. Why is this happening to people I love right now?"
"She told me today that the docs couldn't feel the lump or really even detect it and are amazed. After only about a month of treatment. My aunt once asked me, 'So what do you believe?' and I told her 'That I am certain there is a God.' It's things like this that make me even more certain of this undeniable fact."
"Today is my mom's last treatment...I thought about how lucky she has been, but then I think it was still cancer. Her being so upbeat and things having gone so well has masked the insidiousness of what she has in a way. I have lost others in my life to this. I know it kills. It's a prickly fear that gets under your skin and never quite goes away..."
My mom is now in remission and is a patient navigator for other cancer patients, meaning that she is there to help "hold their hand" through the treatment process. I really like the idea that she is using her experience to help others get through theirs. Thank you for being so brave. I know it was so hard and even harder for you, but your being able to laugh made us be able to as well...

Raglan Tiny Olympics: Squirrel Power!

Stretched my paws and did the Cloudchase steeplechase during the Tiny Olympics in Raglan today. I was the last leg of the 3 racers and ran as fast as I could around the course! Even made the water hazard leap in one bound! Team Green took the bronze...We then did the Archery competition and I was so tickled to be hitting bullseyes! It had to come down to a claw-biting tiebreaker between Wolf and Daisy for gold...
But Wolf won the gold for Team Green and I got the bronze! YAY!
Wolf was a little overwhelmed by it all...

SL Relay for Life 2008: The Teams

Last year was a very hard one for me. My mother was going through cancer treatments for Stage III breast cancer and my close friend Robert told me that he had Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. He told me in a busy place thinking it'd keep me calmer. It didn't. I sat there crying in front of a whole restaurant. I am happy to say that I am lucky. My mom is in remission and my friend is doing well. So this year, I was able to do the Survivor/Caregiver lap and I did it thinking of them...

En route, I stopped in front of my home team of Steelhead...
And was touched by the large turnout by the Purple Tears team. I had to stop at one point and get myself together as it meant so much to me to have folks lined up along the way and be cheered on like that...

I walked around with CoyoteAngel Dimsum, the duchess of Caledon Primverness, again this year. You can see my lap tally of 7869.2 m. I would go on to do over 20K m before it was all over...Which made Viderian Vollmar's over 300K m laps (wow!) really impressive! After my lap I went by the Caledon site to cheer him on as he began. Go pony GO!Afterwards, I joined my actual RFL team, Elizabeth Blackwell in cheering folks on. Led by Otenth Paderborn, Elizabeth Blackwell was the first female medical doctor in the U.S.I want to thank everyone so much for their support, whether it was giving or participating. Being here inworld helped me to cope and I love the concept of using a virtual world to help make a difference in the real one. I know SL Relay for Life can seem almost endless sometimes to some, but it is an end result that is worth it as your support helped raise $53,310,098 Lindens, which is roughly over $197K USD!

Eshi's Flower Tower #1

Eshi set out the LM for her latest one-hour art installation at the Desperado sim, "Flower Tower"...She was like "I feel like dancing!" and a bunch of broke out into impromptu dance...

Celebrate Mandela's Birthday in Virtual Africa!

Nelson Mandela turned 90 years old today! As a way of celebrating the life and legacy of this inspiration to so many the world over, the folks at Uthango and Virtual Africa will be holding events and parties inworld today!

They are also going to have an entire month of events and are asking for participation from the SL community to help create builds and artwork! You can find out more information here!